Sterilizer.



L. F. OBRIEN.

STERILIZER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 23. 1915.

Patented J 11116 5, 1917.

INVEIYTOI? LE0 FOB/P15 HTTOANEY LEO IE. OBRIEN, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

STERILIZER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 5, 1917..

Application filed October 23, 1915. Serial No. 57,588.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lno F. OBRIEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sterilizers, of which the following is specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to improvements in sterilizers and has for its object to provide a sterilizing bath for dental and other surgical instruments, and one or more auxiliary containers wherein liquids for dental or other'surgical use may be heated to a temperature lower than that maintained in the sterilizing bath.

In the drawings Figure l is an elevation of a device embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the same.

As shown in the drawings the device of my invention is intended to be mounted upon a wall or vertical surface. It has the vertical back plate 10 provided with the horizontal shelf 11, said shelf being apertured to receive the sterilizing tank 12, and also being apertured to receive the hot water containers 13 and 14:. The shelf 11 carries the stand-pipe 15 terminating in the faucet 16 and controlled by the cock 17.

The tank 12 is provided at its bottom with a drain pipe 18 and valve 19.

The shelf 11 is provided with a pocket or cup 20 as a convenient receptacle for chemicals to be used. in the sterilizing baths.

The tank 12 is heated to sterilizing temperature by means of any preferred heating element; that heating element illustrated in the drawings is the gas burner 21, ignited by means of the pilot-burner 22.

The water supply pipe 15 is connected to the supply valve 23 by means of the flexible tube 24:; the drain pipe 18-being connected to the drain valve 25 by means of the flexible tube 26. I have illustrated the valves 23 and 25 as being two-way valves, adapted to supply both the sterilizer, and a dental spittoon with water supply and drainage.

By reason of the detachable mounting of the water receptacles, or liquid receptacles,

13 and 14 in the shelf 11 and adjacent to the sterilizing tank 12, the heat of the contents of said tank 12 suffices by radiation to maintain the liquid in the containers 13 and 14 at a temperature suitable for use in the treatment of wounds.

I am aware that sterilizers for surgical instruments in which sterilization is accomplished by means of liquid heated to the necessary temperature have been made in many different forms and with various heating elements; in all of said sterilizers of the prior art the operator has been delayed in operation by the difliculty of handling hot instruments immersed in ahot bath. The sterilizer of my invention, by employing a long and shallow sterilizing tank 12, mounted, heated, supplied with liquid and drained as above described enables the operator to open the valve 19, drain oflf the heated liquid, and leaving said valve open, or closing it as he prefers, next opening the water cook 17 to subject the instruments to immersion either in a cold bath or in cold running water. By these means the operator can control the temperature of his instruments with great rapidity and without waiting for the instruments to cool by exposure to the atmosphere, or by withdrawing them from the hot bath receptacle and immersing them in a cold bath in another container. By thus enabling the operator to use greater speed, dental operations particularly are rendered more convenient for the operator and less painful and dangerous (especially, less dangerous when the patient is anesthetized) to the patient.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to have secured to me by the grant of Letters Patent, is-- A sterilizer comprising a back plate; an apertured shelf; a sterilized tank seated in one of the apertures in said shelf; liquid re ceptacles seated in other of said apertures and in such proximity to said sterilizing tank as to be heated by radiation from said tank; and heating means mounted beneath said tank and comprising a main gas-burner and a pilot-burner.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature.

LEO F. OBRIEN.

(topics of this patent may be obtained for five .cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. O. 

